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A Huge Military Buildup Is Underway in Qatar. But Who Will Man the Systems?
(Defense News) Chirine Mouchantaf - On Sunday, Britain signed a deal with Qatar to supply 24 Typhoon fighters, after agreements with the U.S. to purchase 36 F-15s and France to receive 12 additional Rafale fighters. One industrial source noted that Qatar's "air force will now have a total of 96 new aircraft, compared to its current Mirage-2000 fleet of a dozen. The problem faced here is the lack of Qatari armed forces personnel to operate three top-line fighter types." The country maintains an air force of 2,500 men. Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), said, "It remains to be seen how [Qatar] will be able to absorb these weapons into an effective force and how much they will be dependent on foreign support, including mercenaries."